Friday, May 28, 2010

So the answers to yesterdays shed quiz were apparently pretty obvious due to the clues I provided. Maybe I should make them harder, eh?

Shed One was a Spider

As I mentioned, it was one of the easiest ones. You could see the pattern pretty clearly in the shed itself.

Shed Two was a Firefly.

I have to say that when I took this shed and rolled it out, I was shocked at the contrast of the pattern and the darker areas. Apparently the brighter the contrast, the more obvious it is in the shed. Keep that in mind for other shed quizzes.

And here are a few more sheds to figure out.

Shed One: Desert

Shed Two: Dark

These should be kinda straight forward, but with less clues, lets see what people come up with!

Looks like I will have a lot of my recessives out of the way early, eh?

Not too shabby.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few more photos of Washington DC while I have the right memory card in the computer.

We took the Metro to the Zoo in Washington DC, and the escalator up to street level was LONG!

But yes, we went to the DC Zoo, as it was walking distance, and you know I'm a sucker for animals.

I don't know who that kid is, but the picture was more for the sign than anything else.

This guy is a Fishing Cat. He was taking a nice nap. I was jealous.

Lots of animals were taking naps. Here are the otters.

And they had an excellent Panda exhibit. I caught one of them munchin.

And an awesome Elephant.

Golden Lion Tamarind

Red Pandas, which are not really Pandas...

Prairie Dog was watching us...

And they have an excellent Reptile House, but I didn't take any photos of inside, due to the fact that I was with some young cousins that were constantly asking me questions, so I didn't have the time to snap photos. But I did get this photo of the outside!

And here is the link for the photos that the Smithsonian offers of the reptiles they house anyway...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

After I typed up the Moonshine blog, ready to go to bed, I went into the snake room to double check to see if I missed anything.

I had yet to really go thru every girls tub, and although I had marked the tubs for the house sitter that would be egg-ing soon, I didn't even glance at them until a few minutes ago.

And here it is.

I should be more vigilant, but I am about to pass out.

See?? I can't even write correct G's.

LAME.

But the proven het genetic stripe girl from last year who made those awesome complete striped boys for me last year has now laid five beautiful eggs this year, early!

I am very pleased, and I hope to have my female G-stripe in there somewhere...

And after rebuking myself for not paying more attention, I found my Cinny female, the one I could not decide on what to do with, ovulating as well. Not a great angle shot for ovulations, but... I promise. She is.

And yes, I did decide what to do with her. Cinnies het Pied, babbayyyy!!

So, there really was snake stuff to talk about. I just didn't know about it yet.

I didn't get back to Los Angeles until 2AM Monday morning, which does not bode well for blogging.

This also doesn't include the 8 hour day I had at work that day (yes, I have a full time job as well).

So, I failed you all by not posting up anything on Monday.

I apologize.

So now, I have limited time to share with you a few tidbits of my trip to Virginia and later, more than likely tomorrow, Washington D.C.

So we were in Virginia with my best friend's family, and we decided to take a trip to a distillery. I want to preface anything else by saying, yes, I realize that I have shared with you on the blog several other ventures in alcohol, including the wine bottling from a few years back. I am not an alcoholic by any means, I just find it interesting.

So we went to Belmont Farm Distillery. They make Virginian Whiskey out of Corn.

Moonshine, to be frank.

And we learned how to make it (kinda).

Here is Chuck, our guide, the man behind the magic. He showed us the tubs in which he cooks up the Shine. Something about Corn meal, yeast, cooking in the Copper Kettle and pure water.... and several weeks of purification.

His own personal collection, of course...

The bottling area...

And the machinery that is required to bottle, cap, label and etc...

All very fancy, but old. Chuck was very proud to have older equipment on hand.

But before the bottling, the ageing.

Depending on the type of Whiskey, the barrel aged stuff stays aging for two years before bottling.

Moonshine doesn't need that kind of treatment, but the brown stuff (ala Jack Daniels) that you and I are used to seeing needs some time to simmer.

They make the only Applewood Smoked Whiskey in the country, so he said. And it is gooood.
But unfortunately, there was no tasting there. We had to buy a bottle and sample at home.

Damn you, misleading sign...

Oh well. It was a beautiful place, and you all should go and check it out if you get a chance.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I have to say that I'm tempted to be more difficult than what I had originally planned, as I was going to post up the animals photos as well as the sheds, but I think it will be more entertaining if you guys just guess and see who wins, and I will post up the answers tomorrow.

Shed number one is a dark one, and I talk about the power of this morph often.

Shed number two is a light one, but it is not completely clear. I couldn't get a perfect shot of the pattern, but it is very very slightly there.

Shed number three's pattern is pretty obvious in the shed itself. Just look closely.

So you want a few hints?

Two are dark morphs, one is from an animal I produced myself a few years back and a lot of people enjoy its super form. The other is one that Eric founded. The clearer one is similar to an Albino, but not quite...

Monday, May 17, 2010

Well, that Axanthic I had been watching closely decided to share with me a few white treasures on Saturday morning, much to my delight.

I have to say, I am rather excited about this clutch. I am hoping that there are at least Albinos in this clutch, but we will see what happens.

If she doesn't prove out, at least the babies in this clutch will ALL be TSK Axanthics poss het Albino. So I get to try again!

She was ridiculously skinny when I pulled her from her eggs, but she was pleasant enough. She only hissed a few times, no striking, and no problems getting the eggs. I got her within a few hours of her laying, so I could pull the eggs apart.

So Clutch #3 of 2010 is on the ground, and I am very pleased!

Its interesting that everything I have on the ground so far is recessive stuff:

Thursday, May 13, 2010

There are still locks going on, and still glowing and still developing and so forth. It's still early yet, so I am seeing the span of the gamut in terms of breeding.

The locks, of course...

Those that are again, just getting the hang of it, but getting pretty cocky... Look how angry he is that I'm bothering him!!!

(Please ignore the bad shed on that girl... They were locked up, so I couldn't remedy the situation)

And of course, the Glow. Looks like a completely different snake, doesn't it??

And various stages of gravid development.

This gal is in the earlier stages, but what I'd like to call the flat tire. She is flat and fat, but a pointed spine towards the end of her body. She has at least another couple of weeks before I anticipate anything, if not more

And of course, the last span of time before eggs... Look how miserable she looks.

Again with the flat tire, but much more pronounced from the sides. She is wiggling around to get comfortable, but with six eggs in her, I can't imagine how she can be!

Hopefully she will lay this week or next. But also hopefully before we leave for Washington DC.

We shall see.

So there you go. Still breeding, still waiting, still taking random pictures.